NOTE: Please contact us before your visit to ensure exhibit dates have not changed.

MUSEUM RENOVATION

The museum is currently undergoing a complete redesign. Exhibits have been relocated to the library building. The project is anticipated to be completed in the summer of 2019. Museum renovation project details.

CURRENT TEMPORARY EXHIBITS

The Eisenhower StoryLibarary 2nd floor gallery

The Eisenhower Story is a specially curated in-house exhibit for the duration of the museum renovation. This exhibit provides an overview of Dwight and Mamie's life featuring nearly 200 artifacts - many of them never before displayed.

Dwight D. Eisenhower's leadership style as president reflected his practical, level-headed Midwestern roots: Work from the middle to accomplish what those on the extremes saw as impossible.

The exhibit and speaker series spotlights a prescription for peace and prosperity that guided Ike throughout his eight years in the White House. He sought balance for America -- the pursuit and preservation of social gains, for instance, while refraining from government overreach. The exhibit in the Central Library's Rocky and Gabriella Mountain Gallery explores six key areas reflecting that approach.

This special programming is made possible by a grant to the Eisenhower Foundation from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City.

PAST EXHIBITS

Chisholm Trail and the Cowtown that Raised a PresidentApril 2017 - May 2018
Museum

Celebrate the Chisholm Trail Sesquicentennial as part of the tristate celebration with Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. See rare artifacts and historic photographs. Learn about the “square meal,” “real McCoy,” origins of the cowboy boot, and “the wickedest town in the West.” Discover stories behind the legends of T.C. McInerney, Bear River Smith, and Wild Bill Hickok among others. Find out why Dwight Eisenhower developed a love for all things western and the Cowtown that raised a President!

Eisenhower and the Great WarMarch 2017 - March 2018
Library

War erupted in Europe in 1914 and soon involved nations around the globe. The Great War as it became known shocked the world with its massive scope and the industrial-like slaughter created by advances in military technology. The United States reluctantly joined the conflict in 1917 and began to build a large professional army from the ground up. One of the young officers who helped in this endeavor was a lieutenant by the name of Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower showed remarkable talent for organization and leadership during the years of American involvement in the war. Tasked with training thousands of inexperienced troops in the new and untested art of armored warfare, Eisenhower quickly built a strong and motivated group of soldiers while overcoming severe obstacles and setbacks. This exhibit tells the story of the Great War and its influence on Eisenhower’s budding leadership abilities. World War I, as it would become known later in the century, proved critical to the making of this American Icon

The Chisholm Trail: Driving the American WestAugust 2017 - October 2017
Library Lobby

Come and experience life on the Chisholm Trail 150 years ago. The exhibit includes historic items from the period, including a saddle, chaps, spurs, a western “dime novel” and a stereograph viewer. (Some of the first photographs of Abilene were stereographs.) The exhibit also features video clips from famous western movies such as “Red River” and “The Old Chisholm Trail.” Children will enjoy the many images displayed for small visitors.

This unique traveling exhibit, created for the Symphony in the Flint Hills by Flint Hills Design of North Newton, uses wood, metal and leather to provide tactile, hands-on displays. Life-size longhorn steers made from metal rods are the centerpiece of the exhibit.

Experience the inside perspective and humorous White House anecdotes of Marlin Fitzwater. Fitzwater grew up in Abilene, and was on the White House staff for ten years, including six as press secretary. He was the only press secretary appointed by two presidents, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

The exhibit gives a glimpse of what it was like to be in the White House during historic transitions. Fitzwater was left holding the nuclear code numbers when President Reagan departed the White House for the last time. He accompanied President Bush home to Houston when he left office.

Over the next three years, the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum will present an inclusive commemoration of the pivotal events of World War II. World War II Remembered: Leaders, Battles & Heroes, is a series of exhibits and programs that will run from June 2013 through December 2016 marking the 70th anniversaries of the war. What makes this exhibit stand out from other interpretive WWII exhibits is the focus on personal stories. World War II Remembered will strive to honor the unsung heroes and tell the lesser known stories of the time. The accounts of such groups as the Tuskegee Airmen, Native American Code Talkers, the brave contribution of the Ritchie Boys, and the heroic stories of women at war and on the working home front will be shared.

Be Ye Men of Valour: Allies of World War IIFebruary 2014 - December 2016
Library

"Centuries ago words were written to be a call and a spur to the faithful servants of Truth and Justice: 'Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation....'" –Winston Churchill, 19 May 1940

This exhibit strives to tell the untold and forgotten stories of the many allies involved in the war effort. While it was major industrial powers like the United States, England, and the Soviet Union that provided the bulk of manpower and resources, dozens of other Allies selflessly spent blood and treasure of their own to defeat the Axis powers. This exhibit explores the important victories, defeats, personalities, and causes associated with the lesser-known Allied nations and resistance groups.